


The Archie Files

by MemoryCrow



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Psychology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 14:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8288651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoryCrow/pseuds/MemoryCrow
Summary: Just a quickie while in the process of posting Land of Nod. Some persistent voices. Poor, messed up, Storybrooke people.





	

Archie reviewed his files on his patients, a little dismayed to find them strikingly similar. There were differences in the details, but...

 

~ Emma said, "I don't know how to move on. I know, now, why my parents did what they did. But all of those years...." Here, tell-tale behaviors displayed by almost all of his patients: The rising of blood to the face, the welling of tears in the eyes; looking elsewhere, avoiding eye-contact. "All of those years, I was _alone_. I believed I was abandoned. Unloved, unlovable. I don't know how to change those things in myself, now, and I don't know how to forgive myself for leaving Henry."

 

 

~Mary Margaret said, " I lost my parents early on. I mourned my mother so much... but I almost didn't have time to mourn my father. My step-mother, you see. She hated me. She tried to kill me! I was orphaned, alone. I had to learn to be strong, for myself and for those around me, those who came to depend on me. There are times, now, when I feel I'll just collapse. Run away. Hole up, cry, and sleep forever."

 

 

~ Hook said, "He just _left_ us. I believed in my father, and he just left us in the night, with _nothing_. How could he do that, mate? How could he shake us off like that, his blood, just to seek better fortunes? How am I supposed to believe I'm worth anyone's time.... or that they're worth mine? The effort of not looking out for me, alone. My own father thought he was better off without me."

 

 

~ Regina said, " I don't know if my mother ever loved me. I believe she thinks she did, but everything she wanted for me was for herself. She _killed_ my Daniel... To protect me from harm? Well, maybe in her version of things. Daniel would never hurt me. She wanted the throne, and Daniel wasn't the way to get it. She _used_ me. I was her pawn, her weapon and tool. And for so long... I _loved_ her. Maybe I still do. I would have done almost anything to please her. She made me the woman I am now. I don't know if she ever loved me."

 

~ Gold said, " What? You know my sad tale, already, dearie. What is the point of this? This rehashing. He abandoned me and I abandoned Baelfire, and so on and so on.... Why the hell did I come here? Never mind. You're overdue on rent."

 

 

~ Ruby said, " I barely knew my own mother. She was... fierce. In ways, I wanted to be like her. Free... instead of under Granny's thumb. But at least Granny cared for me, tried to protect me. My mother just... left. She had her freedom, her men and the moon. I was just an inconvenient thing she left behind."

 

 

~Leroy said, "I was hatched, Doc. _Hatched_!" He burst into sobs, removing his cap and rubbing his head. "Hatched, a grown man, ready for work. No childhood. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Doc. A long way from home."

 

 

~ Belle said, "I'm so confused. I always felt my life to be privileged. Protected. I took it for granted that I was loved. I had the ease, the time to love books as I do, to dream... I didn't question my place in my family. But... after my mother died, I think my father blamed me. I don't think he could stand to look at me. And once I left with Rumpelstiltskin... Maybe he was relieved? I saved our people, after all. But he never spoke of that. He never acknowledged that Rumpelstiltskin honored his end of the deal... and continued to do so, even when we were parted.  
"They say my father is good and Rumpelstiltskin is evil, but Rumpelstiltskin always tried to care for me, and my father turned his back. For something as small as thinking differently. I feel like I don't know him, and I feel that -but for Rumpel - I'd be an orphan. I'm so confused, Archie. I don't know what to do."

 

 

~ Dr. Whale said, " Psychology is a bunch of hokum, Archie. Electricity, energy... neural plasticity, retraining of synapses, _re-animation_... that's where it's at. The stem cell, genetic coding and DNA tinkering you're always reading about.... What? Oh, heck no. My father was so disappointed in me, I think he might have hated me. He could never accept me for who I was... he couldn't accept the things I accomplished, _accomplished_ to try and win his approval. Heart-breaking, actually. There was never understanding or forgiveness between us."

 

 

~ Baelfire said, "What? Oh, don't give me that look, man. I know you know all about it... me and my old man. What's the point in talking about it? Rehashing. Don't you think that just keeps the pain alive? Don't you just have a pill, or something? Anyway, I think he meant well, most of the time. But hell... if your papa becomes the freaking Dark One, you're pretty much abandoned before you're ever abandoned; right? I just wish I'd known about Henry... I wish I'd been some sort of father, instead of... well, you know."

 

 

~ Zelena's behavior was different. She smiled and laughed the whole time she spoke, and yet the rest was the same. "How much time have you got, little cricket man? My mother, and I quote, had to give _herself_ her "best chance". She hadn't caught wind of sacrifices one makes for one's child, I guess. She left me in the proverbial basket of reeds, although I was set sail in a cyclone rather than upon a river. My pretend father was as big a whack-a-doo as you'd ever hope to meet. Daddy dearest. He openly despised me, and yet he wanted to me to go through this _shaving_ ritual with him. _Ugh_. Amongst other things. Shaking like leaf to be touched. And those who claimed to be like me, to understand me... those who took me in like a child, or a sister... _liars_ , everyone. They never accepted me, never believed in me. I ask you, cricket; If I didn't set my own fate, make my own way, who else would?"

 

 

~ Lacey said, "Who are _you_ supposed to be? Art _Gar_ funkel?"

 

 

The Big Book of Bad Parenting; that's what he should write, Archie decided. He could start with his own parents. His unintended betrayal of them was absolute and horrifying, in spite of their serious shortcomings. It went a long way towards informing his own choices... remaining single and childless, helping others, keeping his focus and thoughts away from himself.

  
He'd tried to guide a child, once. It had sort of worked out. That child, magic in his blood, had a wild, wayward streak. A propensity for trouble and adventure, and had grown into a man who harbored some regrets. A few sorrows.  
However, doubting that he was loved, that his parents wanted him and believed in him were not among those sorrows. Be he flesh or wood, he might be the happiest person Archie knew.

  
He closed his files with a sigh. Maybe he'd go find Leroy and learn to drink.

 

 


End file.
